Every Hamas unguided rocket is launched in hopes of hitting an Israeli home and killing men, women and children.

Every guided Israeli air-launched missile is targeted at Hamas operatives, who deliberately work in the closest vicinity to women and children.

War Is Weird When Played By Gaza Rules

Hamas killing Israeli children is an old Muslim tactic.  But isn’t this particular act of Islamism …. how shall I say it …. disproportionate?  h/t JihadWatch:

Making good on its promise to try and “kill Jewish children anywhere.”

“Grad Rocket Strikes Ashdod Kindergarten Schoolyard,” by Hana Levi Julian for Israel National News, January 5

9:16 AM IL: Injuries in Sderot Rocket Attack

A number of waves of rockets struck southern Israel in the past 45 minutes. In a Sderot attack, 4 people sustained minor shrapnel injuries. Other rockets landed in the Greater Sderot Area. Thank G-d, no physical injuries are being reported in the other attacks. There are people being treated for hysteria however.

Homefront Command officials have stated that while Operation Cast Lead is moving ahead, the coming days may be difficult ones for southern residents as Hamas terrorists are under heavy attack from the IDF, from the land, air and sea. (Yechiel Spira YWN Israel)

****

Hamas continues to strike out at southern Israel firing 6 Kassam rockets and 1 Katyusha rocket into the western Negev. One exploded south of Ashkelon and others in the Eshkol region and south of Ofakim. Baruch Hashem, there are no injuries or reports of damage.

The el-Arabia news network reports heavy fighting between IDF soldiers and Hamas terrorists in the Zeitoun area of Gaza. El-Jazeera English news reports IDF tanks heading towards the former community of Netzarim where the force is dividing Gaza from Gaza City, the center from the southern areas.

IDF artillery is also hitting the Beit Hanoun area. El-Jazeera also reports IDF soldiers are operating in urban areas, conducting house-to-house searchers, arresting suspects. The report adds soldiers have taken up position in the south, in the Rafiach area between Gaza and Egypt.

30 soldiers have been wounded to date, including an officer and a soldier who were listed in serious condition but Soroka Hospital officials earlier on Sunday reported that following emergency surgery, they are now improving; the remainder of the wounded is in moderate and light condition.

Hamas TV reports the air force hit a Rafiach building and there are fatalities. Hamas reports directing anti-aircraft fire at the IDF over the el-Bureij Refugee Camp. It is not the first time that Hamas reports they are firing anti-aircraft fire but Israeli sources believe they are actually firing heavy machineguns since the
terrorists do not have anti-aircraft weaponry.

At the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert explained the decision to send the infantry forces into Gaza was made on Friday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, acting upon the recommendation of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. He explained that we decided to send in the sons to protect the parents, brothers and sisters who remain at home.

The decision was not a lighthearted one, but one that followed months of seeking an alternate solution, giving terrorists ample time to comply with a ceasefire… I can look at every parent and say we did everything to avoid sending our boys into Gaza.

The cabinet is hearing briefings from the defense minister along with the heads of various defense, security and intelligence agencies.

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu explains the operation in Gaza is not intended to eliminate Hamas’ ability to shoot, but rather to deliver a hard blow to deter Hamas from doing so in the future. Speaking to Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), the spokesman stated that the program is moving ahead as planned.

Saudi Arabia is pledging $30 million in aid for Gaza residents.

Over 3,000 people in Melbourne Australia protested Israels military operation, calling on their government to decry the Israeli action.

In Sydney, some 2,000 people took part in an anti-Israel rally. Australia’s acting prime minister has condemned the Hamas shelling into Israel.

Hundreds protested outside the Israeli Embassy in Istanbul, throwing rocks at the diplomatic compound. A similar protest was held near Israel’s diplomatic facilities in Ankara.

AS WE GO TO PRINT: Two soldiers were lightly injured by mortar fire in the Nachal Oz area. (Yechiel Spira YWN Israel)

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/ article.php? p=28210

7:50 am IL: Iranian Vessel Heading to Gaza

Channel 2 TV News reports an Iranian vessel is making its way to Gaza with “humanitarian aid” but the naval blockade placed on an area measuring 20 nautical miles from Gaza will not permit the vessel entry into Gazan waters.

(Yechiel Spira YWN Israel)

Tanks Reach the Former Netzarim Gaza City Cut Off 8:03 AM IL:

Thank G-d, the first IDF tanks have reached the former Jewish community of Netzarim, thereby effectively cutting off Gaza City from the remainder of Gaza.

With the tanks in place, along with the bombing of the coastal route and the Salah a-Din Route, IDF troops in the first 13 hours of the ground forces operation have reached a major objective as they begin slicing Hamas-controlled Gaza into sections, part of the process of disarming the terrorists and destroying the rocket-firing infrastructure.

The cutting off of Gaza city is a major step, but as Brig.-Gen. (reserves) Avigdor Kahalani reports on Sunday morning, this is a relatively easy step compared to what lies ahead for soldiers in the unfolding operation. Kahalani and other senior commanders stress that tanks must operate from a distance, targeting the enemy from far enough away that it cannot be placed in the sights of anti-tank fire.

Kahalani stresses that commanders must do their utmost to prevent tanks from entering Gaza City, explaining this makes it a relatively easy target for anyone to shoot anti-tank fire from windows and rooftops.

Channel 2 News is reporting that tanks are cutting off the former Netzarim, working with armored D9 bulldozers.

Kahalani is a decorated war hero and former senior tank commander.
(Yechiel Spira, YWN Israel)

“The world never really hates war until Israel is winning one.”
– Alan Wellikoff

Click here for an opinion piece that lays out the history of the Israeli struggle for peace since becoming a legitimate and sovereign nation, which “Palestine” never was.  Never.

What palestiniasts need to do is focus on their own crimes against humanity they have committed by launching missiles over an international border into a sovereign state.

See, the civilized world calls that an act of war and there’s a whole lot of badness that comes with that.

Keep doing bad things and Gaza will remain a pustule of festering Gazans.

Click here to view full interview with girl

Transcript of the full interview:

Girl: We were sleeping seven girls in the room.We were asleep and didn’t know what was happening. In the morning all the bricks were on top of my head, and the heads of all my sisters. My four-year-old sister next to me was dead.

Interviewer: How many were you?

Girl: Seven. In the other room were my mother, my father, my younger brother and another sister, who is 13 days old.

Girl: I say Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars, it’s Hamas.

[PA TV (Fatah), Dec. 29, 2008]

To support the work of PMW, donate by credit card, check or wire

Via PMW:

A Palestinian girl whose family members was killed yesterday in Gaza after an Israeli air attack was interviewed today on Palestinian TV and placed the blame for the war on Hamas:

[Girl]     ”We were sleeping 7 girls in the room. We were asleep and didn’t know what was happening. In the morning all the bricks were on top of my head, and the heads of all my sisters. My 4 year old sister next to me was dead.”

[Interviewer]     “How many were you?”

[Girl]     “Seven.In the other room were my mother, my father, my yonger brother and another sister, who is 13 days old. I say, Hamas is the cause, in the first place, of all wars.”

Did Israel Use “Disproportionate Force” in Gaza?

Dore Gold

• Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000 rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations since 2001. Rocket attacks increased by 500 percent after Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. During an informal six-month lull, some 215 rockets were launched at Israel.

• The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps resurfacing whenever it has to defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they perpetuate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel’s current military actions in Gaza are on solid ground. According to international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it.

• Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel wrote for the Associated Press on December 28 that most of the 230 Palestinians who were reportedly killed were “security forces,” and Palestinian officials said “at least 15 civilians were among the dead.” The numbers reported indicate that there was no clear intent to inflict disproportionate collateral civilian casualties. What is critical from the standpoint of international law is that if the attempt has been made “to minimize civilian damage, then even a strike that causes large amounts of damage - but is directed at a target with very large military value - would be lawful.”

• Luis Moreno-Orampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, explained that international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court “permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur.” The attack becomes a war crime when it is directed against civilians (which is precisely what Hamas does).

• After 9/11, when the Western alliance united to collectively topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, no one compared Afghan casualties in 2001 to the actual numbers that died from al-Qaeda’s attack. There clearly is no international expectation that military losses in war should be on a one-to-one basis. To expect Israel to hold back in its use of decisive force against legitimate military targets in Gaza is to condemn it to a long war of attrition with Hamas.